Canonical, the publisher of the Ubuntu open source operating system, announced on April 22 the release of Ubuntu 21.04. This release brings native Microsoft Active Directory integration and an application development SDK. Separately, Canonical and Microsoft announced performance optimisation and joint support for Microsoft SQL Server on Ubuntu, which means that the Microsoft SQL Server database management system (DBMS) and its command line interface (CLI) are now available on Ubuntu images optimised for Azure and that's not all. The release also supports Microsoft Active Directory, a directory service for centralised domain management developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks.

Native Active Directory integration and Microsoft SQL Server certification on Ubuntu are top priorities for our business customers," said Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical. For developers and innovators, Ubuntu 21.04 offers Wayland and Flutter for smoother graphics and clean, beautiful, design-driven cross-platform development. "Below is an overview of Ubuntu, Microsoft Active Directory and Microsoft SQL Server.

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mainly of free and open source software. It is released every six months, with long-term support (LTS) releases every two years. It is a popular operating system for cloud computing, with support for OpenStack. Ubuntu's default desktop is GNOME, since version 17.10.

Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Note that in Windows, a server running the Active Directory Domain Service (AD DS) role is called a domain controller. It authenticates and authorises all users and computers in a Windows domain network. Assign and enforce security policies for all computers. It also manages and stores information, provides authentication and authorization mechanisms, and establishes a framework for deploying other related services: certificate services, Active Directory federation services, lightweight directory services, and rights management services. With Ubuntu 21.04, Ubuntu machines can now join an Active Directory (AD) domain during installation for centralized configuration. AD administrators can now manage Ubuntu desktops, simplifying compliance with corporate policies.

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational DBMS developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is software whose primary function is to store and retrieve data on demand from other software applications, which may run on the same computer or on another computer over a network (including the Internet). Microsoft markets at least a dozen different editions of Microsoft SQL Server, aimed at different audiences and workloads ranging from small single-user applications to large Internet applications with many concurrent users. Microsoft SQL Server on Ubuntu offers an optimised and cost-effective database platform. Canonical and Microsoft will provide integrated support for Ubuntu with Microsoft SQL Server deployed on-premises or via Azure Marketplace for mission-critical workloads.

"The joint solution comes with performance enhancements, such as Force Unit Access (FUA) on XFS file systems for data durability. Persistent memory provides high-performance data storage without additional configuration. Finally, the entire platform is highly available, supported by Corosync and Pacemaker, to ensure resilience," Canonical said.

Source : developpez.com